Chapter 106

Evelyn tilted her head, her crimson lips curling into a mocking smile. "Or what? Should I wait for a rabid creature like you to sink its teeth into me first?"

She casually brushed her hands together as if wiping away dirt.

Cassandra's face twisted in fury. "How dare you compare me to some wild animal?!"

The boutique door chimed open.

Evelyn lifted her lashes—and froze.

Nathan Blackwood stood framed in the entrance, his towering presence silencing the room. Their eyes locked, an electric current crackling between them.

Neither had expected this collision of worlds.

Evelyn's gaze turned glacial. She looked through him as if he were a stranger on the street.

Nathan's jaw tightened. The woman who once gazed at him with stars in her eyes now regarded him with empty indifference. It unsettled him more than he cared to admit.

"Nathan!" Cassandra scrambled up, crocodile tears already spilling. "Thank God you're here! Evelyn assaulted me—just look at my face!"

"I did." Evelyn's smirk deepened. "Her cheek still carries the imprint of my hand. Care to inspect it?"

Nathan's voice dropped to a dangerous timbre. "What are you doing here?"

Evelyn arched a brow. "Shopping. Or does that require your permission now?"

The Evelyn he once knew would have softened under his scrutiny. This version stared back with the detachment of a marble statue.

Cassandra seized Nathan's arm. "She's blackmailing me! Demanding I publicly apologize to some hotel nobody! When I refused—"

"Let me guess," Nathan cut in coldly. "You've already caused enough damage with that viral video. Now you want a press conference too?" His gaze hardened. "Know your limits."

Theodore bristled but Evelyn stopped him with a subtle hand. She stepped forward, eyes dark as loaded gun barrels.

"Justice has no limits, Nathan. Only cowards think otherwise."

A muscle ticked in Nathan's jaw. "This isn't justice. It's a power play for Sebastian Kingsley."

"Then we're done here." Evelyn pivoted on her stilettos, the dismissal absolute.

"Wait!" Cassandra panicked. Those photos—

"Nathan, she's fabricated compromising pictures! She's trying to ruin me!"

Nathan moved like lightning, snatching Evelyn's phone from her grasp.

Cassandra exhaled in relief. Shannon was right—Nathan remained their most useful pawn.

"Give that back!" Evelyn lunged, her manicured nails grazing his wrist.

In her haste, her heel caught on the carpet. Nathan caught her against his chest, her body molding perfectly against his. The contact sent heat rushing to Evelyn's cheeks.

Through the fine cotton of his shirt, she felt every defined ridge of his torso. Damn him for still being sculpted like a Greek god.

Nathan kept one arm locked around her waist while his thumb flew across her screen. He recalled her old passcode—0923, their anniversary.

The phone unlocked.

Evelyn's breath hitched. Those photos weren't the only secrets in her gallery.